Median Compensation for Public College Heads Grew 3% in 2010-11

Three chief executives of public colleges earned more than $1 million in total compensation during the 2010-11 academic year, according to a survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The median total compensation of the 199 public college presidents surveyed was $421,395, up 2.9 percent from 2009-10, the survey found, while the median base pay, $383,800, increased 1.3 percent.

As in the past, E. Gordon Gee of Ohio State University was the highest-paid president, earning $1,992,221 in total compensation — 12.3 times the compensation for the average full professor at Ohio State. His base pay was $814,156, with the rest coming as a bonus and deferred compensation.

In the previous survey, Mr. Gee, 68, who served as president or chancellor of Vanderbilt, Brown, the University of Colorado and West Virginia University before returning to Ohio State for his second term as president in 2007, was the only head of a public university to earn more than $1 million.